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... and Slay is NOT the name of the lizard!

Hello
Slay the Lizard of Lunenberg (and other thankless sidequests) is a game made for Muffle's 1-Dungeon RPG Game Jam by Psy Wombats, with Rpgmaker 2000. And it's a fantasy adventure, that's really weird since the game made by this developer that I played so far were quite different: Dememorize (a surreal short adventure with 1st person sections), Divergence (a cool looking sci-fi puzzle game), Vertigo Temple (cyberpunk/horror short side view adventure) and Zephyr Skies: the Winter Sage. But do not we talk of that game here! WAIT a second! There was also The Kidnapping and other crimes of Princess Pri a game I reviewed in the far past (2019) made in collaboration with Liberty, that has several points in common with Slay the Lizard of Lunenberg (besides having a long title!). For example they are both rpgmaker adventure games with no combat, made with the White Screw Shop assets pack and both take place in a fantasy realm where our alter ego protagonist is a princess. But I have few time and lots to say so let's start with the plot:

Slay the Lizard of Lunenberg is set in Lunenberg (doh!) a small town where our trio arrives: Chelsea the princess of Lemuria and adventuress, Kid the kid and Gaza the talking cat. Do not worry, this isn't an rpg game so there is no party based combat (no combat at all... except for... well I will tell that later!), but the trio provides lots of funny dialogues and situation, expecially Kid the kid, a naive boy that wishes to be an adventure and believes to everything he hears. Gaza is a cat that often talks about food, fish, catnip and balls of yarn, and Chelsea is obsessed with great quests expecially fightling lizard, well a dragon would be better but they are young so lizards are ok. Pity that a couple of adventurers already arrived in Lunenberg and there is not even a single quest available. Or not?


Oh yeah, like that we do not have enough problems! Nice bunny suit, by the way!

Slay the Lizard of Lunenberg is, more or less like Princess Pri was: a funny fantasy adventure that parodies many aspects of fantasy games. Anyway do you know what you will have to do here, in an adventure game with no combat?
Can you guess that?
3...2...1...
If you said "fetch quests" you are great! Yes, there are many fetch quests, and game is longer, far longer than I expected (for a RPG Game Jam) since it took me an hour to complete, but was it worth it? I tell that you later, but I must say that thankfully the fetch quests are made less boring thanks to two things that Psy implemented:

- First we have the seer, or helper, that will give some hints about what you are supposed to do. The old guy in the beginning will immediately direct to her so you will never have to wander aimlessly. I asked help to her just three times but because I had few time and I was to be sure to finish the game before I had to leave, even if you can save anywhere and anytime.
- Second, the puzzle and minigames: fetch quests are fine but ok, this would be boring, luckily there are also many others activities, like crate puzzles, quick time events, dancing, and items (or trash) collecting. Yes to finish the game you need to items from the general item store, and with no money and loot available the only way is selling every item or piece of trash we can find, mind that quest items cannot be sold, so you won't lose those things you will need later.


Solve quests and find GREAT exotic treasures in this game!!!

You can also speak with the different inhabitants of Lunenberg, and each one has a lot to say, while Chelsea has four question for them... that may be three, because in some cases the fourth question is unlocked only after doing or learning something! And the fun thing is that to find and fight the lizard that out three heroes are looking for, is that you will need to solve many (thankless) sidequests learning the backstories of many of the quirky characters of Lunenberg (but not everyone is useful to our adventure so avoid wasting time if you see that you are getting nowhere).

Regarding music and sounds there is not much to say, nothing new but still perfect for this lighthearted game, and I liked them, especially the mine cart theme.

Now the graphics: the visuals made with the White screw shop tileset and charsets are simply beautiful: there are many characters with different and appropriate facesets, Psy did an excellent job here, and where maps aren't that many, some of them are really huge (Lunenberg and the castle area are the only two outdoors locations but are very big! But also the dungeons aren't small at all!), but they also look good, detailed and realistic. I also no problems remembering where I had to go to reach some parts, anyway I hope you won't mind walking a lot, because that's what Chelsea will have to do for a lot of time. On the other hand there is also a lot of attention to the details, interactions (with both people, forniture and items) and descriptions, and I really lost myself here, exploring Lunenberg.
And also speaking about the game, so let's wrap up and see to conclude.


That's sure, I mean why spending a day killing slimes? Boooooring!

Final Verdict
Slay the Lizard of Lunenberg is a fun game, an adventure and a collection of stories of quirky and memorable characters: the Xp-hungry adventurers, the emo pianist, the rebel rabbits, the guy with the... uhm curvaceous statue, the Slime Prince, the clever cats, the goth girl, and so on. Now, since this is a review I've to find some flaws in order to criticize the game: the first is that I do not know if it is possible to get stuck somewhere due to the open nature of the game (I also believe there is enough money to get both items from the shop at the same time, without risk to be stuck. I mean I first got one and that let me earn enough to get the second too but I guess that doing the inverse order is still possible) and the freedom to explore a huge map, I mean I was able to reach some locations with alternated and not expected routes, avoiding the need of some prerequisite items... maybe these will be fixed, anyway there was nothing gamebreaking at all. Also the game is big and you've to do a lot of walking, some fetch quests aren't also very intuitive (the bodyguard one for example. Others like the emo pianist or the hotel owner ones were easier), but that's why the helpful seer is there. You may also not like this kind of adventure game, but this would be your problem not mine or of the game, of course!

Fun fun fun! I really liked this game and I cannot believe it's an event game. But you know, I loved Princess Pri (and the other characters), so I adore Princess Chelsea (and the other character). For me it was an extremely enjoyable
cool adventure game with many cool characters and moments.

Summing up:

+ Funny characters & humor
+ Really nice colorful maps
+ Dance battle and other awesomeness!

- Not enough lizards -_-'
- Lots of walking... my feet hurts!
- The seer is my best friend and without her help I'd be totally lost! Sigh.

Posts

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Thanks for the review!

Re: not having enough cash for both items -- the game is designed so that for the first purchase, you can't get both. But whichever you pick, you'll unlock a path to a high-valuable trash item (worth 10gp) that enables you to purchase the other. So you can explore in whatever way feels more natural and it works both ways.


and trust me, I fixed that bunnysuit sequence break thing as soon as it was pointed out and before the event stream haha
author=psy_wombats
Thanks for the review!

Re: not having enough cash for both items -- the game is designed so that for the first purchase, you can't get both. But whichever you pick, you'll unlock a path to a high-valuable trash item (worth 10gp) that enables you to purchase the other. So you can explore in whatever way feels more natural and it works both ways.

and trust me, I fixed that bunnysuit sequence break thing as soon as it was pointed out and before the event stream haha


Yeah, I imagined that! Good job, as always was very fun. EXCEPT that it did not took me less than an hour to complete! But you know what? I had fun all the time, so who cares? ;)
Ooooops. Double post! I will use this to say: it was really impressive for content and lenght considered it is an event game!
author=TheRpgmakerAddict
EXCEPT that it did not took me less than an hour to complete!

heh, yeah after reading that and Muffle took 2 hours reading aloud, I removed that from the description.
author=psy_wombats
author=TheRpgmakerAddict
EXCEPT that it did not took me less than an hour to complete!
heh, yeah after reading that and Muffle took 2 hours reading aloud, I removed that from the description.

Well... it probably would have taken two hours to me too if I did not spoke with the seer. Buttttt I believed I was the slow one, just to find the brother it took me a ton of time (I was looking for a kid everywhere, explorong every corner of the map... and I avoided speaking with the right person! Lol)
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